Help

Newsletter

Months after lawyer's death, the stray cats he took in are thriving

Former state Sen. Ed Boshears provided for the office cats in his will

BRUNSWICK | Ed Boshears, a lawyer and state senator, loved cats.

He would sometimes greet visitors at the door of his famously cluttered office with a purring cat nestled in the crook of an arm as he rubbed behind its ears.

“I hope you don’t mind cats,’’ he would say.

Boshears died July 4, 2012, and perhaps the dozen cats he left behind don’t get petted as much, but they still eat well and have a dry place to sleep in his former law office. He made sure of that in his will.

“His estate takes care of their well being,’’ said Jonathan Miller, who practices law out of Boshears former office on a side street between the old and new county courthouses.

Jeannine Norwood, Boshears’ longtime assistant and a cat lover in her own right, still works there.

“That’s Cleo. That’s Puddin,’’’ she said of a couple of cats warily watching a visitor. “They were both born on the roof.’’

At any given time, their mother still hangs out up there.

Miller’s daughter, Ashley, 19, worked at her desk with Minny, a big female cat, relaxing on a corner.

Norwood said the cats have all been spayed or neutered, and there won’t be any added to the fold.

Asked how he feels about the cats in the office, Miller said they don’t bother him. He also said they’re symbols of how Boshears practiced law and assisted the needy.

A lot of people who needed but couldn’t afford lawyers came by and he helped them, and he was an easy touch for the homeless.